“…From the relaxing effects of cannabis to the highs of LSD and ecstasy, illegal drugs are not generally associated with the lab bench.
Now, for the first time in decades, that is starting to change.
For almost 40 years, mainstream research has shied away from investigating the therapeutic benefits of drugs whose recreational use is prohibited by law.
But a better understanding of how these drugs work in animal studies, and the advancement of brain-imaging techniques, has sparked a swathe of new research.
What’s more, clinical trials of MDMA (ecstasy), LSD and other psychoactive drugs are starting to yield some positive results.
This could lead to a call for governments to take a new approach to the funding and regulation of research into the potential benefits of such chemicals.
LSD was developed in the 1940s (see “The highs and lows of LSD”) but by the 1970s it and many other drugs became classed as schedule 1 in many countries – described as “abuse” drugs with no accepted medical use.
“Research on psychedelics was severely restricted and interest in the therapeutic use of these drugs faded,” says Franz Vollenweider of the neuropsychopharmacology and brain-imaging unit at the Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Switzerland.
The classification of LSD as schedule 1 was a mistake born of “ignorance and taboo”, says Amanda Feilding, director of the Beckley Foundation …
… a charitable trust that promotes investigation into consciousness and its modulation, based in Oxford, UK.
These kinds of decisions are political not scientific, says Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist in Mount Pleasant, California.
“When the US Drug Enforcement Agency held hearings about MDMA, the judge ruled it did not meet criteria for schedule 1 and should be schedule 3, so it could be used by physicians but not sold in bars.
The DEA administrator put it in schedule 1 despite it not meeting the criteria.”
Despite these hurdles, a number of trials are now under way in the US and Switzerland to investigate the potential of LSD and psilocybin – the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms – in helping terminal cancer patients deal with anxiety and depression.
Feilding is also working with David Nutt of Imperial College London on the first UK study using psychedelics for 40 years.
Among other things, they are researching how psilocybin can help in recalling distant memories …
… which they say could help with psychotherapy following trauma…”
go to source/story>>>Psychoactive drugs: From recreation to medication – health – 01 September 2010 – New Scientist
